


A Walk in the Mountains

by thetransgirlwhoneverwas



Series: Fictober 2020 [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:07:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26777113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thetransgirlwhoneverwas/pseuds/thetransgirlwhoneverwas
Summary: Aqua wanders the Realm of Darkness for years, watching many worlds fall prey to the Heartless. Some are instantly devoured by the dark. But some allow for brief moments of light in Aqua's bleakest of decades.
Series: Fictober 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952200
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	A Walk in the Mountains

Master Aqua put one foot in front of the other and waited to be attacked. She clenched her right fist, ready to summon her weapon at a moment’s notice and crouched slightly in her stance, shifting her weight onto the front of her feet so as to spring aside instantly. Her eyes darted to each side, she stopped her breathing for just a moment to listen for the telltale sound of an assailant behind her. She cleared her mind and let the feeling of power flow through her as she readied a powerful Blizzard spell in her left hand to fire as soon as she felt an attack approaching. She had put her foot down less than half a second ago and she was ready, her left fist humming with magical power, for her foes to strike.

Her foes did not strike. Aqua stayed where she was, prepared, for several seconds as her foes did not strike. She allowed herself the briefest sigh of temporary relief and put her foot in front of the other again.

Aqua didn’t know how long this had been her routine. Every couple of minutes, ready to fight again. She had to be ready to fight at any time. She had always been prepared to fight at a moment’s notice, for years. Living with Terra and Ventus had taught her that a surprise attack could come whenever she wasn’t expecting it. But this wasn’t like living with Terra and Ventus. With them it was never serious. They play-fought all the time. This wasn’t play-fighting. She was in the Realm of Darkness now. Everything here wanted her dead, and it was only through being ready to fight everything here that she wasn’t dead.

“I miss you,” she said to nobody, for nobody was listening. Her mind wandered back to Terra and Ventus. The years she spent with them, trading victories with Terra and racing Ventus around their home. Ven was always surprisingly fast considering how much younger he was. The first time they had raced, Aqua had convinced herself that she had let him win. It wasn’t a lie that had sustained. By just a year of their friendship, Aqua was not only sure that she couldn’t outpace Ven, but she was convinced that he intentionally slowed himself down to make the margin between their finishing times smaller so she would feel better. Not that either of them would ever admit it, of course. Ventus was in a coma now, his heart shattered. Aqua had promised to be there for him.

“I’m sorry, Ven,” she said to nobody, for nobody was listening. She wanted so badly to go back to him, tell him how sorry she was. Apologise to both him and Terra. Terra, who had resisted succumbing to darkness at the critical moment, only for his very body to be stolen and usurped by the man behind all of their sorrows. The man who had used Terra’s body to fight Aqua, and forced her to sacrifice herself to the Realm of Darkness to save Terra. The man who, even now was looking for Ventus for his own dark purposes. Xehanort.

Aqua missed Ventus. She missed Terra. She missed them so much that she hadn’t even noticed her surroundings had changed. She snapped her mind back to reality, cursing herself for being distracted, but then was once again distracted by how lush everything was around her. Green fields stretched beneath her feet. She could see a camp to her right, and to her left, a huge mountain range covered in the purest of snow. Aqua didn’t dare to believe her own eyes until she knelt down and felt the ground beneath her. Grass. Soft, green grass, unlike she had felt in years.

“This is nothing to celebrate,” she told herself, and deep down, she knew it was true. That this just meant yet another world had fallen to darkness. But she couldn’t help herself. It had been so long since she had seen anything that hadn’t been corrupted by the endless abyss she was trapped in, and for the first time in a very long time, Master Aqua set aside the big picture and let herself be entranced by the beauty around her.

“I haven’t seen anything like this in so long,” Aqua said to herself, a habit she had picked up since her isolation from anyone else around as she floated through the clearing towards the mountains. For a moment she even forgot the black void around the world and just saw the tallest of the mountains, the green of the grass fading into the grey of the rock and finally into the gleaming, sparkling white of the snow atop the peak. She crossed a small stream - “water!” she laughed, actually laughed at the sight of water not conjured by her own offensive magic, but natural, beautiful water - and knelt down again to pick up a handful and drink it. Her magic kept her thirst quenched and her hunger sated without the need to eat or drink anything, but the taste of water on her lips for the first time in years filled her with such delight she had to tear herself away after several minutes of sitting by the stream and drinking the crystal clear water.

Aqua strode away from the stream and up the mountain, a clearly beaten path presenting itself to her. Whoever had lived in this world, whatever this world was, the mountain was a clear point of interest. She walked up the path, marvelling at the view. She could see the camp better from up here, and could see it was military in nature, a wooden fence surrounding towers and rows upon rows of small tents lined up in perfect order.

“Whoever lived there, they certainly had more discipline than we did,” Aqua giggled at the moment of how often she, Terra and Ven would sneak out at night against the orders of Master Eraqus to spar, or race, or just watch the stars. She had lost count of how many times they had fallen asleep while stargazing together, only to be woken up by the strict but caring voice of their Master, who always pretended to be angry at them for their disobedience, but never did anything to try to curb their rebellious tendencies. Eraqus had raised the three of them for years to be fierce and powerful, but kind and loving in equal measure. He was dead now. Another victim of Xehanort’s machinations.

Aqua turned her gaze away from the camp and towards the peak of the mountain. As she walked the air around her grew colder, but Aqua had never minded the cold.

“If I did mind the cold, I wouldn’t have specialised in ice magic,” she reasoned to herself out loud.

The ground beneath her feet grew softer as the thump of her boots hitting solid rock transitioned slowly into the quietly satisfying crunch of feet in snow. As she kept walking she became gradually aware that it had started snowing and she hadn’t noticed; or perhaps it had always been snowing up here and she had simply walked right into the path of it. The camp was almost imperceptible now, she was so high up the mountain, and though she could see where the fields ended and the black, endless void of darkness started, she couldn’t help but think that it was closer to the camp than where she had noticed she had entered the world.

“This world is falling deeper into the dark,” she mourned aloud. How many worlds had she seen befall this fate? She couldn’t even remember anymore. Nothing seemed able to stop the darkness.

As if on cue, Aqua realised she had reached as high as she could climb. The mountain range stretched out before her, a vast expanse of white peaks and valleys contrasted with the pitch black oblivion around it, as if all colour had been drained from the Realm and only black and white remained. As melancholy as the sight was, Aqua couldn’t help but find it somewhat strikingly beautiful. Beauty was a scarce rarity, but she only had a few moments to enjoy it.

“Not again,” Aqua snarled as the darkness crept towards the snow, and from the darkness shapes formed. Creatures, angular and twisted, with sharp claws and piercing yellow eyes. The Heartless had once again come for her. Had come to devour this world and leave everything in darkness.

With a long, drawn out breath that spoke of both years of despair and an everlasting well of determination, Aqua held out her hand. In a flash of light she summoned the Keyblade that once belonged to her deceased Master, and charged once more into battle with the Heartless.


End file.
